turn of the twentieth century Fall 1999 Produced by the North Carolina Museum of History

Nr Heel jn-Por historian Worth Carolina History for Students Tar Heeh Junior Tar Heel Junior Historian Historian North Carolina History for Students Association, Fall 1999 Volume 39, Number 1

Caver photographs all courtesy of North Carolim State Archives, North Carolina Division of Archives and History, except top right (the Hausers), which is courtesy of North Carolina Historic Sites, Division of Archives and History. Contents

State of North Carolina 1 Introduction to Life at the Turn of the Century by Gary Freeze James B. Hunt Jr., Governor Dennis A. Wicker, Lieutenant Governor 4 Social Life at the Turn of the Century by Gary Freeze Department of Cultural Resources Betty Ray McCain, Secretary Elizabeth F. Buford, Deputy Secretary 6 Horne Creek Farm in the Year 1900 by Anne Radford Phillips

North Carolina Museum of History Janice C. Williams, Interim Director 8 One-Stop Shopping in 1900 by Valerie J. Howell Vicki L. Berger, Collections Management Section Kimberly Gordon-Eaton, Administration Section 10 Women in 1900 by Anastatia Sims Charles A. LeCount, Curation Section Martha P. Tracy, Education Section 13 Sallie Southall Cotten by Anastatia Sims Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Rebecca Lewis, Program Coordinator 14 Tar Heel Junior Historian Essay Contest Winner by Casey Riddle Gail Deaton, Subscription Coordinator 16 Politics at the Turn of the Century by Karl Campbell Tar Heel Junior Historian Staff Doris McLean Bates, Editor Daniel Russell, Designer 19 George Henry White by John Haley Nancy Pennington, Cover Designer Kathleen B. Wyche, Editor in Chief 20 ACTIVITIES SECTION: Think about the Turn of

Conceptual Editor the Century by Sandra Boyd Gary Freeze 23 Industry at the Turn of the Century by Gary Freeze Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Advisory Board 26 Urban Life in Charlotte by Dan Morrill Doris McLean Bates, Nancy Cope, Gary Freeze, Rose Geddie, Janice Cole Gibson, Vince Greene, 28 Child Labor by Robert Korstad Deanna Kerrigan, Charles A. LeCount, Rebecca Lewis, Hannah Mendelsohn, 31 Alexander J. McKelway by Sarah Dixon Martha P. Tracy 32 Railroads in North Carolina, 1900 by Allen W. Trelease

34 Furniture Making in North Carolina by Richard Eller

36 From Mine Shafts to Skyscrapers: Banking in Charlotte by Brenden Martin

THE PURPOSE of Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the history of North Carolina to the students of this state through a well- balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations. It is published two times per year for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4650. Copies are provided free to association advisers, along with the association newsletter, Crossroads. Members receive other benefits, as well. Individual and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $5.00 per year. © 1999, North Carolina Museum of History. PHOTOGRAPHS: Unless otherwise indicated, photographs are courtesy of North Carolina State Archives, North Carolina Division of Archives and History. EDITORIAL POLICY: The Tar Heel Junior Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with the conceptual editors and other experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily represent the views of the North Carolina Museum of History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or any other state agency. THE TEXT of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the State Library, Serv ices to the Blind and Physically Handicapped Branch. For information call 1-800-662-7726. NINE THOUSAND copies of this public document were printed at an approximate cost of $7,773.42, or $.86 per copy. Introduction to Life at the Turn | the Century by Gary Freeze*

In 1901 Sidney Carroll and his family The changes at the turn of the century moved from the country to town. altered how people made their living, how Carroll, a Civil War veteran, had been a they were educated, what freedoms they farmer all his life. For years, his family had enjoyed, and the kind of communities they grown as much cotton as it could lived in. The changes set up a in Cabarrus County but way of living that had made little money. became devoted to The Carrolls lost industry and their land to debt. stayed in place In the 1890s, through they had much of the supported the twentieth Populist Party, century. which had tried to help farmers but deeply divided North Carolina. When the Populists lost their power, Mr. Carroll retired from farming. This illustration shoivs workers picking cotton across the road from a factory. Many North Carolinians From Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, by D. A. Tompkins, 1899. were on the move when the twentieth century dawned. The whole This issue of state was in the midst of a profound Tar Heel Junior A Hamlet, North Carolina, scene showing the transition. It was becoming the leading Historian explores Seaboard Air Line passenger train, ca. 1900. industrial center of the southern United what life was like States. Factories were replacing farms as the around 1900. You source of livelihood for many residents. In will see the tone and scope of life in this 1900 the first cotton factory worth $1 state at the turn of the twentieth century. million, the Loray Mill of Gastonia, was What's more, we want you to understand completed. Tobacco factories in Durham the character of the changes that impacted and Winston-Salem made North Carolina North Carolinians. We will be looking at the leading producer of cigarettes. Furniture three areas: society—how people arranged factories in High Point and Lenoir were just their lives; politics—how people agreed to starting.

*Gary Freeze is an associate professor of history and the James F. Hurley Scholar in Residence at Catawba College. Streetcar owned by Durham Traction Company, Durham, in front of Lakewood Amusement Park, ca. 1905.

groceries produced far away from the state. Mecklenburg County had begun to pave a few roads to help farmers get the crops to town. In late 1900 the first two automobiles, called Locomobiles, arrived in Charlotte. To folks in cities this was "progress," the word often being spelled with a capital P, as if it were one of the new brand-name products the trains brought to town. Progress meant that many struggling At a gathering, October 1909. farmers could find jobs in the factories. They could buy a wider variety of products the rules that governed them; and than they had ever seen before. Their economics—how people made their living. children could go to a new type of school, Let's go back to Mr. Carroll. When he one with grades that systematically started farming, railroads were literally advanced students toward graduation. engines of change that could take his cotton In politics, the Democratic Party rose to to market much faster than a horse and power as the supporter of Progress. wagon. In the 1870s most North Carolinians Progress made even country folk more had rural habits, and tools were similar to town-oriented than ever before. The those of their grandparents. When the railroads made shipping products like eggs, Carrolls moved to town in 1900, they could strawberries, or sweet potatoes easier, and for the first time use electricity, call merchants encouraged farmers to grow someone on the telephone, ride a trolley car more items like these. The factories created daily, or visit the local market to buy a huge market for cotton and tobacco. Coastal Plain farmers, such as those in Delivery (RFD) mail service. By 1908 most Greene County, grew large quantities of North Carolinians east of the mountains tobacco for the first time around 1900. received RFD, rather than having to walk to Farmers in the foothills, in places such as the neighborhood post office. They also got Cleveland County, grew more cotton to new addresses. Poplar Tent became supply nearby mills. Concord, Route 1. Although they lived in the country and worked as farmers, they had a town identity. (Below) In this 1912 photograph, men are feeding As you will see in this issue, different rye into a threshing machine, which separated the kinds of North Carolinians reacted in grain from the straw. different ways to Progress. The ways of industry impacted North Carolinians unevenly. For example, you will learn how the building of new public schools coincided with literacy tests for voting, a scheme to deny African American males the right to vote. At the

same time, cotton Top of letterhead mill families of the P. H. Hanes and Company, struggled to make 1896. ends meet in their new circumstances. Life at the turn of the century was a time of exciting change, but not (Above) Rural mail carriers for the post office at necessarily change that did all North Gold Hill, North Carolina, 1907. Carolinians good.

Perhaps the best way to understand the change for country people is to look at the way they adopted new addresses. Before 1900 most North Carolinians identified their location as the nearest church or country crossroads. Mr. Carroll, for example, spent most of his life in Poplar Tent, named for the local Presbyterian church. His counterpart in Pitt County could have lived in Hicks Crossroads. In 1896 China Grove, Rowan County, received the first Rural Free

automobiles. (Social Life at the Turn | the Century by Gary Freeze

In 1899 a farmer in Catawba County complained The new "soft" drink competed with the old that times had changed. "People do not have "hard" drink of alcohol. In 1900 seventeen saloons corn shuckings and log rollings like they used operated in Charlotte. At the time, there was a to," he lamented. Indeed, the farmer was on to general movement in cities to stop alcoholic something. With the coming of the new century, old consumption. Prohibitionists favored the banning ways were passing away in many parts of the state. of hard drink to keep workers sober for the new New social ways and ties were becoming factory jobs. In 1908, in a tense political campaign, prominent. North Carolinians were the whole state went dry, making dividing themselves into alcohol illegal. new social classes, and With the completion of the often their social life railroad system was a reflection of throughout the state, the new North Carolinians of all conditions of classes began to travel life in urban more. Wealthier settings. residents of the Whereas in towns annually the past traveled to the people of the mountains or the state had made beaches for what their own later became known refreshment and as vacation. By 1900 recreation, by 1900 Nags Head, Morehead they had begun to City, and Wrightsville enter the consumer age. were popular for "surf In 1900, residents of bathing." Burlington, Asheville, Concord, Others "took the waters" at Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, A picnic in the woods, ca. 1900. places with unusual concentrations Greensboro, Charlotte, of minerals in the water. The belief Wilmington, Greenville, Goldsboro, and Raleigh was common that drinking this water would cure could read their towns' daily newspapers. The most ailments. Hot Springs, west of Asheville, was papers featured advertisements for all the new a popular Mountain destination. Down east. Red items that could be purchased in downtown stores. Springs also drew tourists. Others went to take in The change in North Carolina society was also the fresh air. The Green Park Inn in Blowing Rock evident in what residents drank on social occasions. and the Eseeola Lodge at Linville advertised the At the turn of the century, the downtown square of healthful character of their air and food. At the Charlotte had three drugstores, where someone Fourth of July, most factories in the state shut down could go for the new creation: a "soft" drink. The for a week. Often, entire mill villages would charter flavors could vary from ginger to chocolate. In New a train together and go to the beach overnight. They Bern, Caleb D. Bradham, a pharmacist, invented the would start the evening before, arrive at dawn, stay dark, sweet syrup that would become Pepsi-Cola in all day, then sleep on the way back. The Odell mills the twentieth century. in Concord pioneered this concept. Other mills took Mountain trips in the same manner. The newest tourist places were in the old Sandhills region. Physicians claimed that the turpentine vapors that came from the longleaf pine helped the sick. "Our pines are full of healing, an effective agent for converting the oxygen," argued one. Southern Pines and Pinehurst became places for out-of-state guests to stay during the warm winters. North Carolinians also began to turn to new sports to amuse themselves when they were not at A bridal tea party in New Bern, 1898. work. Baseball became widespread in the 1880s and 1890s. Towns, schools, state still went to camp meetings and invented a and mills had teams. Football was introduced about new gathering, the family reunion. Since many the same time at the colleges, first at Trinity College family members moved to towns and no longer (later Duke University) and at the University of lived near the "homeplace," they set aside times in North Carolina in Chapel Hill. the summer for a return to see loved ones. African Americans, faced with segregation at Social life in the state adapted to new circumstances the turn of the century, favored the same forms of at the turn of the century. Most residents made the society and recreation that whites did. Black best they could of the new times. Jt communities celebrated with special fervor two dates each year: New Year's Day (or Emancipation Day) and July 4, days that represented freedom. Churches held suppers, and in some places such as Hickory, parades were sponsored. The appearance of new lifestyles did not mean the elimination of older forms of social life or entertainment. Folks in the Mountains still gathered in homes to quilt, eat, and socialize. They often played music that in the twentieth century would be labeled "old-time," a forerunner of bluegrass. Country families across the

Trademark of Pep-Kola in 1903. View of farmers shucking com at Gus Childs's farm in the This drink would become Pepsi-Cola. Mountains of North Carolina, November 9, 1910. Horne Creek Farm in the Year 1900 by Anne Radford Phillips* To see how people farmed and lived from 1900 to 1910, visit Horne Creek Living Historical Farm. Located near the Yadkin River in Surry County, in the northwestern Piedmont, Horne Creek Farm is a state historic site. Venture just seven miles from the town of Pinnacle at Exit 129 off U.S. Highway 52 North to arrive at the farm. See the farm animals on-site and, in the summer¬ time, a vegetable garden with corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, green beans, butter beans, and cucumbers. Year-round, you can see chickens roaming and clucking and even find eggs the hens have laid in Home Creek Farm State Historic Site today. their nests. See the guineas, funny-looking birds with Across the hall is a quilting frame, about the size tiny heads. (They like to chase the chickens.) You of a double bed, where women would sit and quilt might glimpse the farm cat that catches mice in the and talk. Scraps of material that had been previously barn, and you'll see Rhody, the mule. pieced together would determine the design. Try to You can tour the two-story farmhouse, originally a imagine getting enough light from the two windows log structure, which is framed over and painted white, in the room. No electricity! with green shutters. Enter the house through the Continue down the hall to the kitchen and its big downstairs front porch and step into the hallway cookstove made of cast iron. The farm family made made of wide wood boards and having rooms on fires in the stove with chunks of wood and heated it either side. In one room is a sewing machine that you hot enough to make biscuits, fry ham, cook scrambled operate by pedaling a treadle—a bit like a bicycle. The eggs, and boil coffee in a big pot for breakfast. Notice movement of your foot on the treadle turns a wheel the big wooden table where the family ate meals. See the plates made of heavy earthenware, or pottery. At one end of the kitchen was a dry sink with no running water—just a basin to hold dishpans full of water for washing hands with a brownish homemade lye soap. You can see cakes of yeast (they smell awful!) used for baking bread. The homemade yeast was made from cornmeal and some "starter," or yeast, left over from earlier batches. Step out of the kitchen's back door and cross a covered walkway, similar to a little bridge, to get to the well. There, boys and girls, men and women used a windlass to lower a tin bucket into the fifty-foot well to fill the bucket with fresh water, and wind it back up to the top. Can you imagine doing such chores even before you could eat breakfast? Hauser family members and hired hands in front of bam, ca. 1908. Horne Creek Farm belonged to the Hauser family, whose ancestors came to Pennsylvania from an area in that makes the sewing-machine needle stitch cloth. Europe called Alsace-Lorraine, in present-day France. The home also features a foot-pumped organ and a fireplace. Imagine men and women playing fiddles in the same room during square dances. *Anne Radford Phillips, Ph.D., is an oral historian and teaches at North Carolina State University. The Hauser farm had items comparable to those on this list of sale from the William Phillips household, from a Surry County inventory on November 12,1902.

y jars / clothesline western edge of Stokes / pot County. «/ rifle Thomas Poindexter / hooks Hauser (1854-1911), / two trunks one of John's sons, / skillet and lid married Charlotte / book churn Charlotte and Thomas Hauser. Kreeger (1858-1941), his y North Carolina Historic Sites, North Carolina mother's niece. They wed in 1875 and had / axe Division of Archives and History twelve children, eleven boys and one girl. / lock y mattock The original Hausers eventually traveled The family lived in the John Hauser house / lantern through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and continued to farm, as their parents and / lot of plows and came into the western Piedmont grandparents had. They grew most of the / candle molds frontier, near Winston-Salem. They were of food they ate. About the only things they / log chain German descent and settled near other bought were sugar, salt, and, sometimes, a / meat stuffer and German families, Lutheran and Moravian, little flavoring, such as vanilla. sieve who lived in the settlements of Salem, Farm families raised hogs for pork and / saddle Bethania, and Bethabara. sheep for mutton and wool to spin into / bottles and oil can y drawing knife At the time of the Civil War, John Hauser yarn to make coverlets. They raised / hammer (1807-1886), his wife, Elizabeth Carolina chickens for food and cows for milk and y hams Poindexter (1810-1864), and four of their butter. Today, when you visit Horne Creek / anvil children lived at Horne Creek. The family Living Historical Farm, you can participate / collar (for horses or grew wheat and corn, oats and tobacco, in farm activities. You can dye Easter eggs mules) peas and beans, and flax, used to make with onions! You can feed the chickens and / two flat irons linen. They also had beehives and produced other farm animals. In the fall, you can / tallow 180 pounds of honey in a year, according to shuck corn from a huge pile and look for a y chisel shears / handsaw a census taker in 1860. They used most of red ear of corn as a surprise. You can also / soap dish the goods and crops themselves, but some make and taste apple cider when you turn / flax hackle things they used for barter with neighbors the grinding wheel of the cider press and y jug or at a country store in the Shoals help make apple butter in a big copper pot / grindstone community along the Yadkin River. in the yard near the farmhouse. At the / crout cutter (for A gristmill operated at a location across visitor center, you can hear oral histories of making cabbage the wide Yadkin River from Shoals and the the Hauser family and neighbors. Near the into kraut) / steel trap Hauser farm. To take wheat or corn across entrance to Horne Creek Farm, visit the / coffee pot the river to the mill, the family would hop graves of Solomon and Tabitha Sawyers, / cupboard on a ferry and pull ropes that turned a African American neighbors whose / 3 scythes wheel at the riverbank to propel the descendants worked on the Hauser farm. / scythe and cradle squeaky flat "boat" across the water. When Go back in time when you visit Horne (for cutting wheat) the river swelled after hard rains, it was too Creek. Then ask your grandparents and / harness dangerous to cross the muddy Yadkin by great-grandparents, neighbors, and friends / 2 iron wedges the little ferry, and people had to wait for what they know about the year 1900. Look / frow / chisel and auger the river waters to recede. for photographs and letters. Find out about / shovel After John Hauser's wife died in 1864, he your own history. #

married Mary Susanna "Polly" Kreeger This inventory listed the (1812-1893), who came from the town of value of all these things King, located about ten miles away in the at approximately $750.

7 One-Stop ing in 19 by Valerie J. Howell*

here did people buy shoes, railroad travel and the building of new rail building supplies, or candy in lines helped some communities develop 1900? If you lived in a town, you into towns with many merchants and stores. could visit different stores for different But farm families who did not live near items. But if you lived in the country, you railroad lines continued to depend on the depended on a single, local country store country store for their supplies. Dirt roads for many of your farm and home supplies. and traveling by horse and wagon kept The C. J. Bright Store, built near New Hill in most people from venturing very far from Wake County in the 1870s, operated until home. Around the turn of the century, two events impacted the future of the country store. First, the automobile began to appear on North Carolina roads. This new form of travel was easy and fast. Trips to the nearest town were no longer inconvenient. However, it took time for the new invention to catch on. A booklet published in 1905 for Selma, Johnston County, stated that "the new and noisy contraption alarmed pedestrians and frightened horses and mules." A short-lived local ordinance prohibited cars on the main business street. Second, in 1896 Rowan County established the first Rural Free Delivery D. D. Bruton and Company General Store, Capelsie, (RFD) mail route in North Carolina. Many Montgomery County, North Carolina, ca. 1908. rural community post offices closed between 1900 and 1905. Home delivery the 1940s and sold "such a variety of goods meant there was no longer a need to visit that a newly married couple could, with but the local store to pick up the mail. one visit to the store, purchase everything to Other improvements in communication set up housekeeping." influenced the importance of country stores. The owners of country stores, sometimes For example, the Swindell Store in Hyde called crossroads stores, often built their County, built in 1890, offered access to the businesses at the intersection, or crossroads, first telephone in the community. But as of two dirt roads in an area near several more home owners installed telephones, families. Store owners allowed farmers to visiting the local store to make or receive a purchase on credit or to pay with farm call became unnecessary. products such as eggs, vegetables, or meat. Today, you can still find a few original In addition to stocking goods for sale, the country stores. In Catawba County, the T. F. store sometimes served as the local post Connor Store, now called Terrell Country office. It was a source of communication and information for farmers and their families. *Valerie Howell, a former Museum of History employee, Country stores existed before the Civil works at the Johnston County Heritage Center, Smithfield, War. After the war, the popularity of as an assistant curator. m

Warren's Store, Prospect Hill, Casivell County, North Carolina, US* ca. 1890s.

Store, opened between 1885 and 1893. It still provides supplies to customers, although most are vacationers visiting Hats and Caps. Lake Norman. Today's convenience store functions much GROCERIES like the old country store. However, the purpose is not necessity but convenience. The visit is short and quick. For most customers, the days of An advertisement for D. L. Smith spending time at the local neighborhood store Dry Goods in clizabethti to visit, catch up on news, or just pass the time Elizabethtown, have disappeared.* North Carolina, ca. 1900. Women in 1900

by Anastatia Sims* What will the girl of the twentieth century be? One hundred years ago, a young North Carolinian named Jennie Webb posed that question in a speech she wrote for a contest. Would "equality" mean that girls would act like boys? Would women of the future be more interested in politics or business than in their families? Jennie answered with a resounding "No!" She predicted, "The twentieth century girl will be a queen of her home and reign in the hearts of her country men." Jennie's speech won first prize. The judges probably considered her forecast to be very accurate. They would not have believed anyone who told them that in the century ahead women would add new roles in the workplace, in politics, and in their communities to their domestic responsibilities. In 1900 the saying "a woman's place is in the home" was both prescriptive—it told women what they ought to do—and descriptive—it summarized what most women actually did. Girls like Jennie expected to marry (probably in their late teens or early twenties) and to devote the rest of their lives to keeping house and taking care of their families. Housekeeping involved the same chores it requires today—cooking, cleaning, laundry—but it was even more difficult then because housewives lacked many of the conveniences we now take for granted. In 1900 most North Carolina homes did not have electricity or running water. There were no electric appliances, and water was drawn from a well and carried into the house in buckets. There were no vacuum cleaners, no electric stoves, no microwave ovens, A clerk at Nort^ Carolina c c , i r , Mutual Insurance Company, 1902. no dishwashers, no frozen foods, and no fast- r - food restaurants nearby for those days when Mama was too tired or too busy to cook! Women made every meal from scratch, using canned, fresh, or dried ingredients and heating the food on wood or coal stoves. When the family had finished eating, women washed and dried the dishes by hand. The entire process, from assembling a. Woman weaving at handmade loom. h. Mitty Ann washing clothes at the spring near the Mordecai House, Raleigh, ca. 1908. c. Farm women worked in the fields in addition to performing their household chores.

Photograph by Margaret Morley, North Carolina Museum of History photograph collection.

Anastatia Sims is a professor of history at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. (Inset, top) Group portrait of the 1899 class of Woman's College in Greensboro. In addition to cooking, cleaning, and laundry, (Inset, bottom) Peace Institute, later women had other responsibilities. Farmers' Peace College, for women. wives—and in 1900 the majority of North (Large photograph) Female students at Carolinians lived on farms—tended vegetable Shaw University, ca. 1905. gardens, raised poultry, and contributed to the ingredients to putting the dishes away, took family income by selling butter and eggs. In town several hours, and since most families ate and country alike, mothers looked after their breakfast, dinner, and supper at home, women children. School terms lasted only three or four spent a large portion of each day preparing meals months, so children were at home most of the year. and cleaning up afterward. And there were no televisions, VCRs, or computers Without automatic washing machines and to keep them entertained while Mama did her dryers, laundry was also a difficult task. Women chores. (Imagine life without Nintendo!) had to draw enough water to fill a large washtub and heat the water on the stove. Then they had to scrub the clothes on a washboard to remove dirt and stains; draw and heat more water for rinsing; wring the clothes out to remove excess water; and hang them on a clothesline to dry. Doing the laundry took an entire day, and for most housewives Monday was "washing day." On Tuesday they ironed. There were no synthetic, wrinkle-free fabrics and no electric irons; women pressed clothing using heavy irons that they heated on the stove.

Women making baskets in Cherokee, North Carolina, 1908. Women from middle- and upper-class families became seamstresses, librarians, or teachers. frequently hired one or two servants—a cook, Many occupations were considered unsuitable perhaps, or maybe a nursemaid to care for the for women, and most people assumed that children. Many families paid laundresses to women did not need jobs because they had wash their clothes. Most servants were African husbands to support them. Americans. These women did double duty: They Although women who wanted or needed to spent their days doing someone else's work outside the home had few choices in 1900, housework, then they did their own at night. their educational opportunities were expanding. Why did African American women leave their The General Assembly established a college for own homes to work in someone else's white women in 1892. The state also supported household? The answer is simple: They needed several coeducational colleges for African the money. Many black families struggled to Americans. In addition, several private colleges make a living. They relied on the income wives for white women and private coeducational could earn, and domestic service was virtually colleges for African Americans were located in the only occupation available. Because of racial North Carolina. discrimination, African American women had In 1900 women were just beginning to difficulty getting jobs in offices or stores or participate in politics. Although women could factories, but they could always find work as not vote or hold office, they formed organizations cooks, laundresses, seamstresses, and maids. that influenced government and public policy. White women were less likely than African They were particularly interested in education American women to seek paid employment, but and worked hard to improve North Carolina's those who did had limited options. Some went to public schools. Women finally won the right to work in cotton mills, stores, or offices. Some vote in 1920. Girls born in the twentieth century have had A Margaret Morley photograph of women in the North Carolina Mountains. more opportunities than Jennie Webb ever imagined. Although women have continued to play crucial roles as wives and mothers, they have also assumed important positions as workers in a variety of jobs and as active citizens in their communities, their towns, and their state. The boundaries of "woman's place" now stretch far beyond the home. Women's lives have been dramatically transformed since 1900. As we approach the year 2000, we can only speculate about the changes the next one hundred years will bring and wonder, "What will the girl of the twenty-first century be?"#

A family planting coni at Linville Falls, North Carolina, May 5, 1905. 6allie (Southall Cotten /cdL<, by Anastatia Sims

Sallie Southall Cotten (1846-1929) was one of regular garbage collection, place trash cans in the most beloved women in early-twentieth- public places, and install or upgrade sewage century North Carolina. A wife, mother, and systems. writer, she became best known for her work with Sallie Cotten believed that women working women's clubs. together could accomplish great Born in Virginia, Cotten moved to North things. In 1902 she was Carolina when she was a teenager. In 1866 she instrumental in founding married Confederate veteran Robert R. Cotten, a the North Carolina planter and merchant from Pitt County. They had Federation of seven children, and Cotten led a busy life caring Women's Clubs, for her large household. As the children reached an organization adulthood and moved away, she started looking that included for new activities. In 1899 she organized the End white women's of the Century Club in Greenville. Club members clubs from all read and discussed books and sponsored parts of the community service projects. Cotten then helped state; she women in other towns to form similar groups. She served as its devoted the rest of her life to club work. president from Cotten believed that clubs could benefit women 1911 to 1913. and that through clubs women could benefit their Through the communities. Many of the clubs founded in the federation, club early 1900s began as literary societies, where women extended members met once a month to discuss books they their influence had read. Because clubs enabled women to beyond their increase their knowledge, some people referred to communities. They them as "the middle-aged woman's university." lobbied the state But most club women were interested in helping legislature for improvements others as well as themselves, and they undertook a in public schools, prison reform, and programs to variety of projects to improve the lives of North help the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. Carolinians. In the early twentieth century, law and custom Many clubs made the establishment of a library required racial segregation (separation of whites their top priority. Public libraries were rare in and blacks), so African American women formed North Carolina in the early twentieth century. their own clubs and their own state federation. Frequently, club women began by collecting books They undertook projects similar to those of white to share among themselves. Then they would women's groups. Sometimes white and African open a reading room and loan books to the public. American women's clubs cooperated to reach a As the collections grew in size and the demand for common goal. In several towns, white and African library services increased, club women persuaded American women cosponsored campaigns to clean city officials to take over and expand the reading up and beautify homes and businesses, and in the rooms into libraries. Many of North Carolina's 1920s, the two state federations worked together to public libraries were started by local women's establish a reformatory, or training school, for clubs. black girls who had been convicted of crimes. Club women wanted to make their towns more Sallie Southall Cotten died in 1929, but her beautiful and healthful places to live. They planted legacy survives. The End of the Century Club, the trees, flowers, and shrubs; established parks and North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs, and playgrounds; and sponsored clean-up campaigns. many of the other groups she organized are still in They asked municipalities to exterminate flies, existence and continue their efforts to improve the mosquitoes, and other disease-carrying insects. quality of life for all North Carolinians. They persuaded city governments to schedule m Tar Heel Junior Historian Essay Contest Winner:

My Great-Grandmother

by Casey Riddle* My great-grandmother, Estella King Young, was born in 1907. She lived in Mitchell County in western North Carolina. Her family was poor, as were most of the families in this area in the [early] 1900s. She went to school through seventh grade. During that period of time, she learned to read and write. Later, she grew up and married my great¬ grandfather, Roy Young, when she was only fifteen years of age. [A typical] age for a girl to marry during this era was between the age[s] of twelve and fifteen years old. So, by the standards of the time, she was considered old to be getting married. She moved to Yancey County when she married and began her life as a married woman. Times were very, very hard for people back then, but I don't think they really realized how hard they had it at the time.

My great-granny would get up at 4:00 a.m. and start cooking breakfast on her little [wood-burning] cookstove. By the time breakfast was over, the farm animals were fed, and the hen eggs were gathered, it was about 6:00 a.m. and time to go to the cornfields and work. Their lives depended on the had to get up very early the next morning. After crops they raised. Not only did the crops provide breakfast was gone. Grandpa would head off to food for them, but also a small income when they work. could sell to those a little more fortunate. Granny Like most people [in her community]. Granny would come in from the fields around 11:00 (telling would go out at least once a week for half of the the time by the sun) and begin the process of day and sell corn, beans, tomatoes, and other making lunch. This was no sandwich like most of us homegrown crops just to make some extra money. eat today. This was a full cooked meal. Grandpa When she had sold all the food, she counted her would bring the boys in, eat, and head to the fields to get to work until it was very late in the evening, * When Casey Riddle entered the contest, she was a fourth-grade when they had to come in and wash up for supper. member of the North Carolina Pioneers junior historian club of After supper it was straight to bed, because they Burnsville Elementary School in Burnsville. money and [often] found out that she had Grandpa and the boys had gotten their made one whole dollar, which was a large church clothes on, they all started walking amount to her. Granny could only afford down the road to the little wooden church one pair of shoes for her four sons, because beside the road. When they came home, the neither Granny nor Grandpa made enough cousins, aunts, and uncles usually came money. Grandpa made only one dollar and over to visit. The children would play fifty cents a week at the most, so money basketball with a peach basket nailed to the was quite scarce. barn door. Granny and Grandpa would sit Weekdays were long and hard, so on the porch with the other adults and talk everyone was looking forward to the until lunchtime. After lunch, there was weekend. When the weekend finally came, more talking and more basketball until only one boy ended up going to the dark. When it was time for everyone to Saturday night movies, because ten cents leave, they said their good-byes. Granny could be given to only one child. made everyone go to bed early on Sunday When Sunday came, Granny would get nights so they could get up the next up early, fix breakfast, get her church dress morning and start a new week. # on. When everyone had eaten breakfast, and

Turn-of-the-Century Time Line

1890— Farmers consider forming new party 1891— Farmers form Populist Party 1892— Farmers make a declaration of independence 1893— Serious economic depression 1894— Pullman Strike occurs 1895— Wireless communication invented 1896— End of economic depression 1897— President William McKinley inaugurated 1898— Spanish-American War occurs 1899— Open Door Policy proclaimed 1900— First automobiles appear on roads 1901— President William McKinley assassinated 1902— America withdraws forces from Cuba 1903— Department of Labor and Commerce formed; Wright brothers' first flight 1904— Northern Securities Company ruling 1905— Treaty of Portsmouth 1906— Meat Inspection Act; Pure Food and Drug Act 1907— White House conference 1908— William Howard Taft elected president of the United States 1909— Payne-Aldrich Tariff 1910— Pan-American Conference

I chose the items on my time line because they seemed to be events that most directly affected people's lives during that era. Many of the events centered around farmers and trade. I feel this improved the lives of people in North Carolina. Many seeds of change were planted during this time that affect our lives today. — Casey Riddle m Politics at the Turn j§ the Century by Karl Campbell*

North Carolina faced an important political Why would these political leaders want to limit turning point in 1900. A dramatic election democracy by disfranchising some of the state's forced the people of the Tar Heel State to citizens? The answer lies in an economic problem answer a fundamental question—would they limit that had spread across North Carolina in the 1880s democracy or defend it? and 1890s and the political crisis it created. After the Civil War, the majority of farmers in the Tar Heel State, both black and white, were very poor. To make ends meet, many farmers started to grow cash crops such as cotton and tobacco. Unfortunately, the prices began to fall. For instance, the price farmers could get for their cotton fell from fifteen cents a pound in the 1870s to five cents a pound in 1894. At the same time that the farmers were getting poorer, businessmen were getting richer. After the Civil War, North Carolina's economy began to shift toward a "New South" based upon industrial development. Textiles, tobacco, and furniture manufacturing seemed to be the way of the future, and the government passed laws to support these industries. But politicians did little to help the farmers. Angry and frustrated, the farmers formed a new political party called the Populist, or People's, Party. In the 1890s the growth of the new Populist Party created a political crisis in North Carolina. Since the Civil War, there had been only two

Charles B. Aycock parties in North Carolina: the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democratic Party controlled the One of the central issues in any democratic state government, and wealthy businessmen country is who is allowed to vote. In 1900 some of controlled the Democratic Party. The Democrats North Carolina's most powerful politicians, won most elections by appealing to memories of including Charles B. Aycock, who was a candidate the Civil War. They blamed the Republicans for for governor, submitted for a vote a new supporting the "Yankee" Federal government amendment to the state constitution. This during Reconstruction and attacked them for amendment would disfranchise, or take the vote away from, most African Americans. *Karl Campbell is an assistant professor of history at Appalachian State University. m that helped the farmers. These new policies angered the businessmen and Democrats, who were used to running the state government for their own benefit. What would the Democrats do to regain their power? Since the key to the Populist and “That Hurt!” cartoon Republican victory had been the Fusion strategy depicting North that brought whites and blacks together, the Carolina being shorn with a Populist shoe. Democrats turned to racism to split these groups From Harper's Weekly, apart. March 28, 1908. In the election of 1898, the Democrats called for "white supremacy." Furnifold Simmons, the chair of the Democratic Party, wrote that "North Carolina is a WHITE MAN'S STATE, and WHITE

promoting the rights of former slaves, almost all of whom voted Republican. The Republicans had fewer voters than the Democrats, but they still held political power in certain areas of North Carolina. The Republicans tended to win elections down east and in the growing cities, where there were more African American voters, and in the western Mountains, where many people had supported the Union during the Civil War. Of course, the Republican Party included rich white men too; however, they supported civil rights for the freedmen and needed black voters to win local elections. In the 1890s the farmers in the Populist Party and the Republicans, both black and white, began to work together to defeat the Democrats. The suffering of the farmers became so great that many whites decided to cooperate with anyone they could in order to solve their economic problems— no matter what the color of their skin. Daniel Russell The Populists and the Republicans created a strategy called "Fusion," in which the parties agreed to vote for the same candidates. Fusion MEN will rule it" [emphasis in the original]. worked so well that they took control of the state Armed gangs of Democratic supporters called Red legislature in 1894 and elected a white Republican, Shirts tried to intimidate blacks to prevent them Daniel Russell, as governor in 1896. from voting. In Wilmington the Red Shirts Once in power, the Fusion government—made launched a bloody riot to overthrow the Fusion up of Populists and Republicans—passed several government. As many as thirty blacks were killed, reforms. It spent more money on public education, and the Red Shirts replaced the elected Fusion made elections more democratic, and passed laws officials with their Democratic leaders. amendment passed. Four years later, there were almost no black voters in North Carolina. Charles Aycock won a sweeping victory and became the first North Carolina governor of the twentieth century. True to his word, he did increase funding to the public schools and earned the nickname “the education governor." But he is also remembered as the governor who oversaw the disfranchisement of African Americans.

A "Red Shirt" parade forms in Laurinburg, November 1, 1898. In 1900 North Carolina began a long period of one-party rule. The Populist Party The campaign of racism and violence worked in died, and with few black voters, the Republican 1898. The Democratic Party regained control of the Party weakened. The Democrats ran the government state legislature. In order to ensure that cooperation without the fear that they would be challenged between discontented blacks and whites would again. never again threaten their control of state Democracy suffered a tragic defeat in 1900, but government, the new Democratic legislature decided African Americans never ceased fighting for their to take the vote away from, or disfranchise, African political rights. It would take fifty years, but in the Americans. For this reason, Charles Aycock and the 1950s the Civil Rights movement began to overturn Democrats pushed for the constitutional amendment the white supremacy established by the election of of 1900 designed to limit democracy. 1900. Farmers also kept struggling for a fairer Aycock also promised that if he were elected economic system. The government now provides governor in 1900, he would improve North Carolina's education system. The schools, however, would be racially segregated. The white schools would teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and a variety of other subjects, while the black schools would stress only basic job skills. African Americans were insulted by Aycock's education proposals and fought for equal schools. The election of 1900 became as ugly and violent as the campaign of 1898 had been. In addition to his calls for better schools, Aycock appealed to racism and endorsed white supremacy. He argued that those whites who opposed the constitutional An old schoolhouse in the Buck Swamp township, ca. 1900. amendment were “public enemies" and deserved the “contempt of all mankind." Once again, the Red Shirts tried to scare blacks away from the polls. One many of the programs they had demanded in the leader even told a white crowd that if a black North 1890s. Carolinian insisted on voting, they should “shoot Today, we enjoy many political rights, but every him down in his tracks." generation faces new challenges to political freedom In spite of the threats against them, 67 percent of Perhaps we can learn from the mistakes of the past black voters courageously went to the polls, but and be better prepared when it is our turn to shape many of their ballots were not counted. The the future of democracy. * George Henry White

by John Haley*

George Henry White (1852-1918) was bom a slave States government take responsibility for the in Rosindale, Bladen County, on December 18, enforcement of all sections of the Fourteenth and 1852. He received his early education in the Fifteenth Amendments, which guaranteed citizens state's public schools and later worked his way through equal civil and political rights. He represented his Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating in district as effectively as other members of North 1879. After returning to North Carolina, White studied Carolina's congressional delegation. Nevertheless, he law under the supervision of William J. Clark, a white was slandered, reviled, and threatened with physical superior court judge of Craven County. He gained harm by racists, who claimed that he was an admission to the state bar in 1879. He maintained a embarrassment to the Tar Heel State, and unfit to home and an office in New Bern and had a successful represent white people. The adoption of the suffrage legal career, primarily in the eastern part of the state. amendment in 1900 effectively disfranchised 80 percent White's reputation as an effective attorney, his of the African American voters in North Carolina, leadership skills, his desire for public service, and White did not seek an additional term in and his popularity led him into politics. Congress. Although Reconstruction had ended, White was the last former slave to African American males could still serve in the United States Congress, vote, and most supported the and the last African American elected Republican Party. In 1880 voters to that body from the South until from Craven County elected the 1972. After he left Congress in 1901, twenty-eight-year-old White to the voters elected no other African North Carolina House of American to the United States Representatives and in 1884 to the House of Representatives for state senate. From 1886 to 1894, twenty-seven years. White served as solicitor and Always a gifted orator. White prosecuting attorney for the made what was perhaps his most Second Congressional District. famous and most quoted speech in After Reconstruction, Democrats Congress on January 29,1901. After had created this district as a way to condemning the oppression of weaken the political influence of African Americans through violence African Americans in other parts of and legal and illegal means, and the state. However, this action also reflecting on his efforts to combat them, ensured the election of an African White noted: American from the district to the United States Congress. This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the negroes' By 1894 many people recognized White as a major temporary farewell to the American Congress; hut let leader in the Republican Party of North Carolina. After me say, Phoenix-like he will rise up some day and come relocating to Edgecombe County, in the Second again. . . . The only apology that I have to make for the Congressional District, White was elected to the United earnestness with which I have spoken is that I am States House of Representatives, where he served two pleading for the life, the liberty, the future happiness, terms from 1897 to 1901. Not only did he represent his and manhood suffrage for one-eighth of the entire home district, but as the only member of his race in population of the United States. . . . Congress, White assumed the burdensome task of representing the interests of all African Americans in White not only left Congress, he left North Carolina. the nation. At a meeting of African American leaders in Raleigh in In 1898 the Democratic leaders in the General 1899, he promised that if life became too oppressive in Assembly proposed a suffrage amendment to the state the wake of the white supremacy campaign of the constitution in order to disfranchise most African previous year, he would emigrate from North Carolina American voters. This amendment established a literacy and assist others of his race to do likewise. He moved to test for voting, but it exempted most illiterate whites Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he established the from taking the test. The General Assembly also passed first African American-managed bank in the city. He legislation that created a system of legalized racial also formed a land company and developed the town of segregation. Similar events were occurring in other Whitesboro, New Jersey, as a haven for African parts of the South. White joined with African American Americans, especially ones migrating from North leaders in North Carolina and other regions of the Carolina. nation to protest racial violence, disfranchisement, and segregation, especially in the South. He also introduced the first federal anti-lynching legislation in Congress. *John Haley is a professor of history at the University of North White passionately and forcibly insisted that the United Carolina at Wilmington. ACTIVITIES SECTION

Think about the Turn (§ the Century

by Sandra Boyd Pool of Words Crossword Puzzle disfranchise Use the pool of words below and the clues on the facing page to solve this crossword Segregation puzzle of vocabulary from this issue. The solution is reversed at the bottom of the child next page. Good luck! Century RFD 1 tobacco 2 3 4 5

Charlotte 6

country 7 market 8 9 Pepsi-Cola 10 11 12 textile furniture twelve 13 vote 14 15

automobile 16 17 18

Railway 19 20 Subsistence timber 21 urbanization 22 Populist governor 23 24 electricity 25 banking

branches 26 27 suffrage slave 28 29 30 31 baseball reunion capital 32 Mebane editor

well 33

washboard 34 library 35 Fusion sheep Across Down

3. The location of North Carolina's first furniture factory. 1. In the 1890s a new political party called the_, or 5. Today's convenience stores function much like the old_ People's, Party was formed by angry farmers who were stores. frustrated by the lack of help politicians provided. 7. This sport became popular in the state at the end of the 1800s. 2. Item on which women scrubbed clothes to remove dirt 8. Many of the clubs organized by Sallie Southall Cotten made and stains. establishing a_their top priority. 4. In the early 1900s, homes did not have_, so the kitchen 10. The appearance of the_made travel fast and easy and stoves were heated with wood. caused the decline of the country store. 6. A strategy the Populists and Republicans developed at the 13. The biggest money-making industry in North Carolina in end of the 1800s in which the parties agreed to vote for the 1900. 14. Alexander McKelway promoted_labor reform to help same candidates. improve laws regarding the employment of young people in 9. As more people moved away from their "homeplaces" the early 1900s. into towns, a new gathering of family members began to 17. Charles B. Aycock was the first elected_of the twentieth develop and became known as a family_. century. 11. Josephus Daniels was the_of the Raleigh newspaper 20. High Point is home to a semiannual furniture_each year. News and Observer. 21. The abbreviation for the mail route established in 1896 in 12. In North Carolina during 1900, tobacco, cotton, and_ Rowan County to provide free home delivery in the rural were grown as cash crops. areas. 15. In 1900 a new amendment to the state constitution was 22. In 1920 women won the right to_. submitted for a vote; this amendment would_, or take 23. Recently, Charlotte became the second-largest_center in the vote away from, African Americans. the United States, with financial assets in excess of $774 16. North Carolina is now known as the "furniture_of the billion. world." 24. George Henry White was the last former_to serve in the 18. The Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Line, and the United States Congress and the last African American to serve Southern_were the three main railroads in the state in there from the South until 1972. the early 1900s. 25. _was the state's fastest-growing city in the early twentieth 19. In New Bern, pharmacist Caleb D. Bradham invented the century. 26. In 1900 most homes did not have running water, so most sweet syrup that would become the soft drink_. water was drawn from a_and carried into a house in 28. Raised by farm families for mutton and for wool to spin buckets. into yarn. 27. Railroads promoted_, as new towns grew and more 29. Unlike most states. North Carolina has always permitted people moved there for better-paying jobs. banks to establish_in different communities. 28. _farming took place when a farmer grew only what his 30. In 1899 Sallie Southall Cotten organized the End of the family consumed or what he could sell in the neighborhood. _Club in Greenville in order to read and discuss books 32. In 1903 the state legislature passed a law prohibiting the and to sponsor community service projects. employment of children under the age of_. 31. The right to vote. 33. _was the legal separation of different races in a society. 34. Lenoir and High Point became the centers for making_, the newest industry in the state in 1900. 35. In 1900 the_industry was located principally in the Piedmont and used steam-power plants to produce cloth.

Q s <3 8 8 8 8 8 8 3 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 X E X X i r E 8 8 8 O L n K 14 I X n E E 8 8 8 8 8 8 A 8 8 e 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 o 8 <3 8 8 8 8 8 8 H 8 8 8 2 E C K E C V X I O 14 8 8 8 8 Q 8 8 8 8 8 8 b 8 C 8 8 8 8 8 8 n 8 8 E 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 O <3 ■ <3 8 8 8 8 E 8 IA 8 8 8 8 8 8 X 8 8 L 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 O 8 X M E r A E 8 V 8 8 8 8 8 8 14 8 8 E 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 H 8 E 8 8 8 8 8 8 E 8 8 n 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 O 8 <3 8 8 8 8 2 n B 2 I 2 X E 14 c E 8 2 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 0 8 V 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 2 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 //. E r r 8 8 8 8 8 n E B Y M I S Y X I O 14 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 o 8 0 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 H 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 o 8 c H Y E r O X X E 8 8 8 C 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 A 8 8 8 8 o 8 i 8 8 8 V 8 8 8 8 8 B Y M K I 14 C 8 8 2 r V A E 8 8 o & 8 8 A O X E 8 8 8 8 8 8 Y 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 M 8 8 8 8 o 8 b 8 8 8 I 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 E E D 8 8 8 8 8 8 r 8 8 8 8 o 8 E 8 8 8 b 8 8 8 A 8 8 8 E 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 I 8 8 8 8 o 8 b 8 8 W V E K E X 8 8 8 2 8 8 E 8 E 8 8 8 Y 8 8 14 8 0 8 8 D 8 8 c 8 8 8 I 8 8 8 I 8 C O A E E 14 O E 8 8 O 8 0 8 8 E 8 8 8 8 8 8 C H I r D 8 8 X 8 B 8 8 8 8 8 8 I 8 .1. o B V C C O 8 8 8 I 8 8 8 8 M 8 I 8 M 8 X 8 8 8 8 M 8 0 8 8 O 8 8 8 8 8 8 K 8 8 8 8 O 8 D 8 I 8 2 8 8 8 8 n 8 o 8 8 B 8 8 8 8 V n X O H O B I r E 8 X 8 I 8 8 8 8 E 8 o 8 8 H 8 8 8 8 8 8 C 8 8 8 8 2 8 8 8 8 8 r I B E Y E A 0 B Y 8 E B Y r r 8 E 8 8 8 8 n 8 8 8 8 8 n 8 8 8 8 8 8 o 13 8 Y 8 8 8 8 8 8 r 8 8 8 8 L 8 8 8 8 8 b 8 8 8 8 8 8 Q <3 8 M 8 8 8 8 8 W E B Y 14 E 8 8 8 8 8 C o n 14 X E A 8 o 13 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 b 8 8 8 8 8 8 Let’s Look at a Century

As you read this issue, you will find much information from the late 1900s. Refer to the articles "Industry at the Turn on how North Carolina has changed during the of the Century," "Furniture Making in North Carolina," and twentieth century. Use this issue to fill in the blanks "Urban Life in Charlotte" for assistance. Also, use your below. Then mark the appropriate areas on the maps. When textbook or other sources to find additional information. Make you complete the two maps, you will see some of the ways a key in the boxes for the symbols you design. Answers that North Carolina has changed during the twentieth appear at the back of the Adviser Supplement. century. One map dates from the early 1900s. The other dates

Key: Early 1900s

i. At the turn of the century, _was the biggest money-making crop in North Carolina. In the early 1900s, this crop was grown in the . . region, even though the factories were located in the_region. Make a symbol for this crop and place the symbol in the counties containing the four towns where it was mainly grown. _was the fastest-growing city in North Carolina. Place a red star on its location on the map. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the textile industry became important. An important crop for the textile industry was_,__, which was grown primarily in the_region. Choose a color for this crop and color the counties of this region on the map. At the turn of the century, furniture making was becoming a growing industry. Make a symbol for the furniture industry and place the symbol in the cities or towns that contained furniture factories. Note that a furniture market was begun in the city of_. Indicate this city with a blue dot.

Key: Late 1900s

Today,. . continues to be the biggest money-making crop in the state. Place your symbol for this crop in the counties that contain the cities of Winston-Salem, Durham, Reidsville, and Greensboro, major manufacturing centers for this crop. According to the Office of State Planning, Lake Park in Union County is the fastest-growing city in North Carolina today. Place a red star on its location on the map. _remains an important crop for the textile industry. Place the symbol for this crop on the map in the counties in which it is primarily grown. Furniture making is still an important industry in North Carolina. The industry has expanded to include other areas. Place your symbol in the areas where furniture factories are now found. Does a semiannual furniture market still take place in the same city? If so, indicate the city with a blue dot. Technology has become important to our state today. Locate Research Triangle Park, a well-known technological complex, on the map. Place a symbol on its location.

Now, compare your tzvo maps. When you examine the information, see how North Carolina has changed during the twentieth century. How has it remained the same? You might want to work with a partner to summarize your findings. Eg Industry at the Turn <§ the Century

by Gary Freeze*

In 1900 the Hanes brothers of Winston the new factories for their wares. Three Salem, owners of the town's biggest different types of products—tobacco, tobacco factory, sold their business to textiles, and furniture—soon dominated Richard J. Reynolds, another tobacco industry in the state. Each industry manufacturer. By 1901 the brothers had influenced primarily one of the state's used the money to start a knitting geographical regions. business and soon were making underwear. Tobacco: The Most Profitable Industry Business in North Carolina at the turn Tobacco, the biggest moneymaker in of the twentieth century was decidedly the state in 1900, influenced growth in the industrial in its trend. Although Coastal Plain, even though the tobacco agriculture remained the occupation of factories were in Piedmont cities. During most state residents, even farmers took the 1870s, two towns, Winston-Salem and their cues from the actions of factory Durham, emerged as centers for the owners. Stores and shops in the different making of tobacco products, from plugs, towns became increasingly dependent on to chew, to loose leaf, to roll and smoke. Most of the bright-leaf tobacco that would make North Carolina world famous was originally grown north of these two towns. Caswell County was the center of production. Changes came in the industry from 1870 to 1900. First, the Bull Durham Company, and then W. Duke and Sons, of Durham, headed the industry. By 1900 James Buchanan Duke had taken control of the production of cigarettes throughout the United States. His American Tobacco Company constituted one of the first monopolies of any product in the

The Durham Bull trademark. *Gary Freeze is an associate professor of history and the James F. Hurley Scholar in Residence at Catawba College. Weighing cotton in Greenville, North Carolina, October 1900. Anything unusual about the picture?

country. In 1899 Duke bought out a towns, then sold and sent to the Piedmont competitor in Winston-Salem, R. J. factories. In this way, the economics of the Reynolds, whose factories made chewing different regions became more closely tied tobacco. together than they had ever been in the The growth of Duke's companies created state's history. such demand for bright-leaf tobacco that farmers east of Texiles: The Most Widespread Industry Durham and In 1900 the state's two hundred textile Raleigh began to factories made items worth ten times the grow it. By the value of their products in 1880. The early 1900s, the industry was located principally in the largest Piedmont. Its concentrated location induced concentration of more Piedmont farmers to grow as much tobacco farms lay cotton as possible. Water-powered cotton in the square¬ mills dotted the Piedmont countryside shaped area before the 1870s, but during the 1880s, between the growing towns on railroads built new Washington Duke and his first tobacco factory. ^owns Rocky steam-powered plants. Charlotte had one by Mount, Goldsboro, Kinston, and Greenville. 1884, Durham the same year, Salisbury bv The economics of the Coastal Plain in 1900 1888, and Greensboro by 1890. The largest revolved around tobacco. The leaf cured in was the Odell mill in Concord, the first to n the country was taken to warehouses in the have one thousand workers. The products of the state's mills improved in quality and durability. Its wheels and beds quality. By 1900 North Carolina made fine textured consisted of the finest hardwood lumber found in gingham for shirts, as well as coarse ticking for the state's mountains. The Mountain region also led mattresses and pillows. The Odells introduced the the nation in the gathering of herbs, roots, and process of bleaching and finishing cloth, which added to its value. North Carolina fabric was sold to immigrants in northern cities and exported as far away as China by 1900.

Furniture: The Newest Industry Furniture manufacturing, the newest industry in the state, grew at sites close to its source of raw materials, mountain forests. Country residents in the Uwharries and the Foothills supplied the oak and hickory needed for the first factories. Lenoir and High Point started factories during the 1880s. These two towns became the centers of a growing business after 1900. Hickory, Statesville, Thomasville, Lexington, and Opening day of W. H. Aikens's tobacco warehouse in Fuquay Marion soon had factories. Springs, North Carolina, ca. 1910.

Other Products berries used to make medicines. Businesses in North Carolinians made other notable products Statesville, North Wilkesboro, and Asheville in 1900. The South's largest wagon maker, the marketed the "crude drugs," as they were called, to pharmaceutical firms. The largest firm, the Wallaces of Statesville, won international acclaim for the quality of its products. Decisions that would make North Carolina products innovative and competitive in the new century were being made. The Hanes brothers in Winston-Salem were not the only hosiery makers. Julian S. Carr, who sold the famed Bull Durham brand to the Dukes in 1899, invested his earnings in hosiery. In Concord, about 1900, James W. Cannon took advantage of new technology to produce terry- cloth towels. He made a fortune on the product in the new century. J. B. Duke used tobacco profits to invest in hydroelectricity. By 1904 the first electricity was made from the dammed-up waters of the Catawba River. By 1920 the decisions made by businessmen at New Road in Charlotte, with wagons filled with cotton, 1898. the turn of the century had made North Carolina From Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, by D. A. Tompkins, 1899. the leading industrial state in the South. # m Urban Life in Charlotte

by Dan Morrill*

David Ovens (1872-1957), a Canadian, Folks did simple things for entertainment. moved to Charlotte in 1903 as On steamy summer afternoons, folks would manager of the S. H. Kress Company sit in the Mecklenburg County Courthouse store. "Charlotte wasn't much of a place to and fan themselves while they listened to come to—in 1903," he declared. "Beyond the lawyer E. T. Cansler argue his cases. "His homes of the aristocracy, a fringe of dwellings scathing denunciation and keen satire of his housed the poorer white class, and still opposition were a perfect delight," said further back were the homes [if they could be Ovens. called such] of the colored folks." Ovens might not have been impressed with Charlotte's first automobile had arrived just what he saw, but Charlotte was North three years earlier in November 1900. The Carolina's fastest-growing city in the early streets were filled with horses "stabled at twentieth century. People with spunk and Wadsworth's, Will Ross's, Cochrane and energy flocked to Charlotte mainly to make Brothers, Queen City Stables, and several money. One enterprising fellow was Walter others." Doctors drove in buggies to the homes of their patients, and a doctor charged "two to three dollars a visit." Charlotte had no skyscrapers and a number of saloons. Its three hospitals had a combined capacity of about one hundred beds. There was only one decent restaurant in town, the Gem, on South Try on Street.

The automobile became popular in urban areas around the tum of the century. This photograph features the first automobile in Spring Hope, North Carolina.

A view north on Tryon Street from Independence Square, *Dan Morrill is a history professor at the University of Charlotte, ca. 1904. North Carolina at Charlotte. Charlottc-Mecklcnburg Public Library Nixon Mullen (1853-1910), a native of Elizabeth City. He opened a grocery store on South Church Street and by 1897 had earned the praises of his neighbors, primarily because of his invention of Hornet's Nest Liniment, a widely acclaimed medicinal brew. Not to be outdone, druggist John Shepperd became the first in town to offer bicycle delivery to his customers. Cotton mills were the main reason for Charlotte's expansion in the late 1800s and early 1900s. "Among Independence Square, ca. 1890s. all of North Carolina's cities, Charlotte enjoyed the most successful growth and by 1910 had surpassed white supremacy and racial segregation placed Wilmington as the largest in the state," writes enormous burdens on black men and women in historian Brent D. Glass. The population of Charlotte Charlotte. At almost every turn, the black residents of increased from 18,091 in 1900 to 34,010 in 1910. With Charlotte encountered events that threatened their good railroad connections and leaders full of "pluck sense of self-esteem. Imagine, for example, how and energy," cities like Charlotte, says historian African American citizens reacted emotionally to the Sydney Nathans, became "dynamic" centers of announcement that Lakewood Park, a popular economic development. amusement complex, would not extend the fall season David Ovens gave two individuals most of the in 1910 so the black residents could visit the facility, credit for stimulating Charlotte's growth. He praised because the "fear existed that such a course might New South industrialist Daniel A. Tompkins injure the resort in some manner, or might lessen the (1851-1914). "It was he," Ovens insisted, "who led the prestige." In November 1911, the Board of School way in persuading people from distant points to come Commissioners announced that it was abandoning here and invest capital in the establishment of factories plans to construct a black school in Third Ward and mills." The second indispensable leader was because of the "objections which have been Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925). "Then there was forthcoming from the citizens." In April 1911, black Mr. E. D. Latta," Ovens continued, "who gave us our first electric street railway, gas and electric lights." Electric streetcars, or trolleys, went into service in Charlotte on May 20, 1891. The first streetcar suburb was Dilworth. Along the South Boulevard line, Latta developed Charlotte's first suburban industrial park. Not all residents benefited from Charlotte's emergence as a New South commercial and industrial center. The customs and attitudes of

The best Charlotte hotels equaled or surpassed the Yarborough House, shown here, in Raleigh, ca. early 1900s.

Sunday School teachers were invited to the Mecklenburg County Sunday School Association but had to sit in the balcony. Similar situations plagued black citizens until changes made during the Civil Rights era (the 1960s) began to address such unfair practices throughout the South. # Interior of a garage in Charlotte, ca. 1911. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library Child Labor by Robert Korstad* (Adapted from Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World, by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Robert Korstad, Mary Murphy, James Leloudis, Lu Ann Jones, and Christopher B. Daly. © 1988 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher.)

(Inset) Lewis Hine photograph of children employed at a Lumberton textile mill in 1914. (Large photograph) Southern cotton mill workers, from Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, by D. A. Tompkins, 1899.

The southern textile industry relied on Women and children led the first wave of the family labor system. This meant migrants to the region's mills, and that the industry's growth depended manufacturers matched them with the low- to a large extent on the skill jobs created by the advent of ring labor of children. Between spinning. A study of women and children 1880 and 1910, manufacturers laborers conducted by the United States reported that about one- Bureau of Labor in 1907-1908 found that quarter of their workforce half the spinners were under fourteen and was under sixteen years of 90 percent were under twenty-one. As mill age, and many more child worker Naomi Trammel put it, “That's workers went unreported. where they put the children. You could run Indeed, in the industry's a frame [spinning] where you couldn't run A group of southern cotton mill workers, from D. A. Tompkins, early years, youngsters of anything else." Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, seven or eight commonly Critics of child labor were not hard to 1899. doffed, spun, and did all find. In the 1880s and 1890s, the opposition sorts of casual labor. Originally, the official was led by the Knights of Labor, and the definition of “children" applied to National Union of Textile Workers youngsters up to age eight, but later it rose to (NUTW), who complained that the low age twelve, then fourteen, and finally sixteen. wages paid to children held down the Nevertheless, young people remained earnings of adults. But after the turn of the crucial, both to the industry's profit margins and to their own families' survival. *Robert Korstad is an assistant professor of public policy studies and history at Duke University. century, a new group of middle-class social rationalizations of mill owners nor the fears reformers joined the child labor crusade. of reformers. Millwork was a source of pride Mill managers themselves were divided on as well as pain, of fun as much as suffering; the issue of child labor. Some firmly believed and children made choices, however hedged that hard work, commencing at a young age, about by their parents' authority and their was the best education available. Others bosses' power. championed the Until the 1920s, no barbed-wire practice as a necessary fences, locked gates, or bricked-in evil in the natural windows separated the factory from progress of society. the mill village. Children could easily Bit by bit, reformers wander in and out of the mill, and chipped away at the opposition. By 1913 North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia had laws that prohibited the employment of children under twelve and restricted the hours of labor for those below fourteen. Exemptions and lack of enforcement, however, enfeebled state regulations. The 1907-1908 Bureau of Labor study found that an astounding 92 percent of the mills in South Carolina and 75 percent of those in North Carolina ignored child labor (Left and top) Children in Gastonia, 1908. Note the girl’ regulations. Mill tired, lined face and the lint on the boys' clothing. worker Flora McKinney's boss was one of those who paid little their first "work" might be indistinguishable attention to the law. "When I got old from play. After school and in the summers, enough," she remembered, "well, I really Emma Williams accompanied her mother to weren't old enough, but they'd take children the mill. "I'm sure I didn't work for the to work then. We were supposed to be money. I just wanted to work, I reckon. twelve years old before we could go to work, Oodles of kids. All of us used to do it but I've hid from inspectors a lots of times. together. [We] didn't do much, and it was They'd come through and the section in real fun. I guess maybe one reason that it front of us would send word to hide the was fun was because that was the only time kids, and we'd run to the water house. Then we got with other children." we'd all cram in there 'til they left." Most children first learned about factory Child labor involved more, however, than labor when they tagged along with a parent the exploitation of youth. There were stories or sibling, carried hot meals to the mill at behind the expressions on workers' faces dinnertime, or stopped by after school. But captured on film by photographer Lewis this casual contact had serious consequences, Hine. Some of these stories fit neither the for on such visits, relatives began teaching at which a child had to begin work. Alice Evitt preferred millwork to schoolwork. "They'd let you go in there seven, eight years old/' Alice recalled. "I'd go in there and mess around with my sisters; they'd be spinning. I liked to put up the ends and spin a little bit, so when I got twelve years old, I wanted to quit school. So I just quit and went to work, and I was twelve years old!" Mill managers expected children to master their jobs within a set length of time, usually about six weeks. During that period, children worked for free or for a token wage. "I don't think they paid us anything to learn. But after we learnt, we got a job, a machine of our own." Almost all workers recalled proudly their ability to learn their jobs despite their youth. Naomi Trammel was an orphan when she went to work. "Well, I didn't know hardly about mill work, but I just went in and had to learn it. Really, I had to crawl up on the frame, because I wasn't tall enough. I was a little old spindly (Above) A Lewis Hine photograph thing. I wasn't the of a girl and her supervisor. only one, there's a whole place like that. And (Right) Young female mill children workers in Gastonia, they had mothers and daddies the skills they November 1908. [but they] wasn't no better off than I would need when they were old was. They had to learn us, but it didn't enough for jobs of their own. take me long to learn. They'd put us with Ethel Faucette carried lunch to her sister at one of the spinners and they'd show us the mill. "While she was eating," Faucette how. It was easy to learn—all we had to explained, "I learned how to work her job. do was just put that bobbin in there and I was already learned when I went to put it up." Children learned quickly work." because most entry-level jobs required Playing and helping could thus shade more dexterity than technical know-how. into full-time work. But getting that first It took a while to become proficient, but official, full-time job was a major turning most children could learn the rudiments of point. Managers, parents, and children spinning, spooling, or doffing in a few themselves influenced the decision. weeks.* Occasionally, mills openly dictated the age Alexander J. McKelway

by Sarah Dixon"

Alexander Jeffrey McKelway (1866-1918) eighteen. Compared to today's laws, which limit influenced child labor laws in North adults to a forty-hour work week, the 1903 law Carolina, the South, and the nation as the seems weak, and it was, particularly since there editor of the North Carolina Presbyterian and the was no way to enforce it. With the support of Charlotte News, and a member of the National Josephus Daniels, editor of the Raleigh newspaper Child Labor Committee. McKelway was born in Nezvs and Observer, and of former governor Pennsylvania and raised in Charlotte County, Charles B. Aycock, McKelway successfully Virginia. After his graduation from Union campaigned for a law that raised the age limit for Theological Seminary, his first assignment as a employing young people in mills, limited working minister was in Smithfield, North Carolina, hours, and required school attendance as a where he organized a church in 1886. condition for working. This law was an The following year, he became important step in improving child pastor of the First Presbyterian labor conditions and was Church in Fayetteville, where eventually followed by the laws he was introduced to cotton that exist today, which limit mills and their workers. Fie working hours for children became concerned about under eighteen and forbid mill workers and began to work by children under work to improve their lives. sixteen except in special One severe problem was circumstances. alcohol abuse, which he In 1904 the National helped to fight by Child Labor Committee circulating petitions to formed, and McKelway support liquor regulation in became the southern the county. Those petitions secretary. In 1905 he resigned began a life of political activism as editor of the Presbyterian for McKelway. Standard and spent the rest of his In 1896 he wrote a series of ife working to improve the lives articles for the journal North Carolina vorking children. In order to work Presbyterian (which later became the with the National Child Labor

Presbyterian S tandard) on church Photograph courtesy of North Carolina Collection Committee, he moved to Atlanta J ' University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill. history, and he became its editor in in 1907, and then to Washington, 1898. As editor of this state journal for D.C., in 1911, where he lived until his death in Presbyterians, he promoted many reforms. 1918. In Washington, D.C., he was the chief especially in child labor laws. It was common for congressional lobbyist for the National Child young children to work in mills for long hours in Labor Committee and also wrote editorials for the unsafe conditions, and his editorials opposed this Washington Times. In 1919, the year after he died, practice. the North Carolina General Assembly created a McKelway became editor of the newspaper Child Labor Commission. Many of the reforms Charlotte Nezvs in 1903 and began to promote child that Alexander J. McKelway sought did not labor reform throughout the entire South. That happen until after his death, but his efforts year, the North Carolina legislature passed a child contributed greatly to child labor reform. labor law prohibiting the employment of children under the age of twelve, and limiting the work *Samh Dixon works in the Education Section of the week to sixty-six hours a week for children under North Carolina Museum of History.

m Railroads in North Carolina by Allen W. Trelease*

The three main railroads were the Atlantic Coast Line, running through eastern North Carolina from Weldon through Goldsboro to Wilmington and farther south; the nearly parallel Seaboard Line, running through Raleigh, Sanford, Hamlet, and beyond; and the Southern Railway, running through Greensboro, High Point, Salisbury, Charlotte, and southward. The Southern also had major branches running from Greensboro eastward to Railroad running from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Wrightsville Beach, ca. 1900. Raleigh and Morehead City, and from Salisbury west to Asheville Railroads were vital to the economic and beyond. The Southern's repair shops growth of America—and North at Spencer, near Salisbury, were new in Carolina. The earliest railroads 1900 and employed hundreds of men. were short, but after the Civil War, they There were almost no other means of were combined into large companies, long-distance transportation for North running long distances. By 1900 North Carolinians in 1900. The state's navigable Carolina had almost four thousand miles rivers were nearly all in the eastern part of of track. Much of it belonged to three the state, and their water levels were often major rail lines that ran throughout the too low for easy steamship navigation. The Southeast. Since they connected with other internal combustion engine, which would lines farther away, by 1900 North Carolina later power cars, buses, and trucks, was was part of a nationwide rail network. Its only in its first stages of development. products could be shipped all over the Until these inventions forced the country, and goods from other states could reach North Carolina. * Allen Trelease has retired from the history department of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is currently working on a history of that institution. construction of highways. North Carolina's Finally, with commercial agriculture and roads were hardly more than mud tracks. industry, the railroads promoted Air travel, of course, was still decades in the urbanization. They created new towns and future. If people wanted to travel or ship made the old ones bigger. Towns produced goods very far, they used trains. jobs, often with better pay than people The railroads had effected many changes could find in rural areas. The North by 1900. They made it possible for once- Carolina Railroad alone (part of the later isolated farmers to raise crops for sale in Southern Railway) created the Piedmont faraway towns. Cash farming replaced Urban Crescent—the cities of Raleigh, subsistence farming, in which a farmer Durham, Burlington, Greensboro, High grew only what his family consumed or Point, Salisbury, and Charlotte. Before the could sell in the neighborhood. railroad, Durham, Burlington, and High Railroads also spurred the growth of new Point did not exist; the other towns were industries, which now could get raw hardly more than villages. materials from a distance and ship their Railroads helped move North Carolina finished products to distant markets. This out of the mud and, eventually, out of worked both ways: with the development of poverty. tt a national rail network by 1900, local producers could not always compete with better or cheaper producers far away. Each section of the United States had to specialize in what it did best. In the case of North Carolina, the specialties became growing tobacco, cotton, and timber as cash crops; and manufacturing tobacco products, textiles, and furniture. These industries used the state's crops and operated more efficiently than their competitors in other parts of the nation.

The first passenger locomotive over the North Carolina Midland Railroad, October 31,1899. Furniture Making in North Carolina by Richard Eller*

a state known worldwide manufacturers displayed new styles that irniture it makes. More store owners could purchase and, in turn, people"E?uy furniture made in sell to consumers. North Carolina than in any other place on In 1880 North Carolina's first furniture earth. The honor of "furniture capital of factory was built—White Furniture the world" is a development of the Company in Mebane. The creation of twentieth century, though it had its furniture companies in High Point and beginnings in the late 1800s. Lenoir followed as the nineteenth century The Civil War forced a change in the came to a close. The forests of the economies of North Carolina towns. Uwharrie Mountains near High Point and Community leaders looked for ways to the Brushy Mountain chain around Lenoir make their towns productive. Manufac¬ provided ample raw materials from which turing began to replace farming. Many to make furniture. Men leaving their farms communities turned to textile manufac¬ to look for dependable work began to craft turing as an industrial employer for their furniture from these materials. citizens. However, in several communities, Furniture making as a business furniture became the major product. exploded at the turn of the century in For centuries, craftsmen had made North Carolina. In 1890 only six companies furniture in North Carolina. Usually, one had been established for furniture or two specialized craftsmen in each production, but by 1904 more than one community were hired to build tables, hundred additional enterprises existed. chairs, beds, and cabinets for home use. Behind textiles and tobacco, furniture This tradition helped to create the became the state's biggest industry. furniture industry in North Carolina. During the early twentieth century, some In the late nineteenth century. New companies came and went, but several, York and Michigan became the furniture capitals of the nation. Both had great forests, and factories that existed before *Richard Eller produces historical documentaries as a production manager with Charter Communications, the Civil War. New York City hosted an Hickory, and teaches history at Caldwell Community annual furniture market in which College and Catawba Valley Technical College. MA"... m ]; f ' fH

Inside a furniture store in High Point, ca. 1910.

such as Broyhill, Thomasville, and Drexel, semiannual furniture market, now serves became giants in the industry. as the focal point of the North Carolina In the early days, southern furniture furniture industry. The market takes place was considered to be of medium to cheap each spring and fall and attracts buyers quality. R. O. Huffman of Drexel Furniture worldwide. joked that a retailer once told him that he Through the determined effort of a was sometimes tempted to "throw away number of manufacturers and their the furniture and sell the crates it came in." workers at the dawn of this century. North Eventually, though, the quality of the Carolina rocketed to the forefront of furniture improved to the point that furniture production. "Furniture capital of buyers looked to North Carolina instead of the world" is a title we all can share as other states for home furnishings. part of the industrial heritage of the Old By 1924 the state became so famous for North State.* its furniture that North Carolina manufacturers began operating their own furniture market. High Point, home to the From Mine (Shafts to (Skyscrapers: Banking in Charlotte by Brenden Martin*

Charlotte skyline today. Photograph by Larry Dolan, courtesy of Charlotte Chamber.

Recently, Charlotte has become the North Carolina banks to operate branches on a second-largest banking center in the statewide basis. Liberal branch banking laws United States. With financial assets in gave North Carolina banks the freedom to excess of $774 billion, Charlotte trails only grow. New York City ($1.2 trillion). The nation's Before 1799, however, the lack of specie largest bank (Bank of America) and the sixth (gold and silver coins) slowed the develop¬ largest (First Union) are both headquartered in ment of banks in North Carolina. The 1799 North Carolina's Queen City. How did that discovery of gold in North Carolina and the happen? Why did Charlotte, a midsized growth of the gold mining industry propelled southern city, emerge as a major financial banking in the Piedmont region. Both the Bank powerhouse? The answer lies in the historical of New Bern and the Bank of North Carolina trends of banking in North Carolina. had branches in Charlotte during the Carolina An important factor in the rise of Charlotte's gold rush of the 1820s and 1830s. As a result, banks is North Carolina's branch banking laws. the United States Treasury Department opened These laws permit banks to expand by a mint in Charlotte in 1836. In 1853, a year after establishing "branch" offices in different railroads first reached Charlotte, local investors communities. Unlike in most states. North opened the Bank of Charlotte. Carolina's state constitution has always permitted branch banking. In 1804 the state legislature chartered the Bank of Cape Fear in *Formerly the historian at the Museum of the New South Wilmington, with a branch in Fayetteville. in Charlotte, Dr. Brenden Martin is now an associate professor of history at Northwestern State University in Later formalized into law, this act allowed Natchitoches, Louisiana. The Civil War and changes in federal banking laws of San Francisco produced another name change—Bank devastated banks in North Carolina, but Charlotte of America, the nation's first truly national bank. recovered quickly. By 1877 there were five banks in the Thirty years ago, however, the largest bank in the Queen City, including the first federally chartered bank South was Wachovia, which began in 1879 when in North Carolina—First National Bank, which opened in Wachovia National Bank was established in Winston- 1865. After 1880 the growth of the textile industry Salem. generated large amounts of money to invest. With half of ("Wachovia" the South's textile industry within a one-hundred-mile comes from the radius by 1903, Charlotte emerged as the hub of name of a tract of Carolina's booming textile industry. Some of the South's land in the upper leading mill owners, such as Stuart Cramer, invested Piedmont that their fortunes in Charlotte banks. was settled in The wealth generated by industrialization contributed 1753 by to the growth of banks. Between 1900 and 1937, banking Moravians.) assets in North Carolina increased by 580 percent—the Through a series fastest growth of anywhere in the United States. The of expansions, establishment of a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in Wachovia Charlotte in 1927 gave local banks immediate access to developed offices cash and bonds. The opening of the Federal Reserve in in every major Charlotte was the spark that led to the growth of North North Carolina Carolina's three largest banking companies—Bank of city, including America, First Union, and Wachovia. Asheville (1903), The oldest of the three is also the largest—Bank of High Point (1903), America, which traces its history to Commercial National Salisbury (1903), Bank in Charlotte. Chartered in 1874, Commercial Raleigh (1922), Interior of Raleigh branch of Commercial National Bank survived the financial panics of the late and Charlotte National Bank, ca. 1890s. 1800s and early 1900s. In 1958 and 1960, Commercial (1939). From the National merged with two other institutions to become early 1900s to the North Carolina National Bank (NCNB). In the early 1980s, 1970s, Wachovia was the largest bank in North Carolina. NCNB pioneered interstate banking with a series of bold Still an important financial power in the Southeast, acquisitions in Florida, South Carolina, Maryland, Wachovia has assets that make Winston-Salem the tenth- Georgia, and Texas. The name changed to NationsBank largest banking center in the nation ($91.3 billion). after a 1992 merger. The recent merger with BankAmerica The other major bank in North Carolina is Charlotte's First Union, which traces its ancestry to Union National Bank (1908). The name changed to First Union National Bank in 1958 after a merger with First National Bank and Trust Company in Asheville. Much like its rival. Bank of America, First Union has expanded aggressively through a series of recent mergers. It expanded into Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee in the 1980s. In the 1990s, First Union added New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Delaware to its marketplace and secured its position as one of the nation's largest financial institutions. Today, Charlotte is a booming city driven by banks commanding more than $700 billion in capital assets. This is a remarkable change since, one hundred years ago, Charlotte was just a small crossroads town. Yet the Queen City's skyscrapers are a visible testament to the banking industry's power and the spirit of this New Sketch of First National Bank building, ca. 1923. South city. # Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library